Perhaps worthy of support?

California lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday requiring the state’s two largest pension plans to divest their holdings in thermal coal as part of a push this legislative session to address climate change.

“Coal is losing value quickly and investing in coal is a losing proposition for our retirees; it’s a nuisance to public health; and it’s inconsistent with our values as a state on the forefront of efforts to address global climate change,” the senate president pro tempore, Kevin de Le!n, said in a statement. “California’s utilities are phasing out coal, and it’s time our pension funds did the same.”

Managers of the £1.5tn invested in Britain’sworkplace pension schemes are to be given new powers to dump shares in oil, gas and coal companies in favour of long-term investment in green and “social impact” opportunities.

Government proposals published on Monday are designed to give pension fund trustees more confidence to divest from environmentally damaging fossil fuels and put their cash in green alternatives if it meets their members’ wishes. Until now many pension trustees have been hamstrung by fiduciary duties that they feel requires them to seek the best returns irrespective of the threat of climate change.

The new rules, though couched in opaque legalese, are a coded go-ahead for pension funds to sell shares in fossil fuel companies if they believe that they could turn into “stranded assets”. The term refers to companies’ coal, oil and gas deposits that may not ever be monetised as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy.

The funds committed to fossil fuel divestment now total more than $6tn (£4.6tn), with almost 1,000 institutional investors having made the pledge, according to a new report.

The sell-off of coal, oil and gas investments is led by the insurance industry, with $3tn of funds. But it also now includes the first nation to divest, Ireland, major cities including New York and key medical organisations. Major oil companies such as Shell have this year cited divestment as a material risk to its business.

Fossil fuel divestment began on US university campuses in 2011 but now spans 37 nations around the world. Supporters of divestment say existing fossil fuel resources are already far greater than can be burned without causing catastrophic climate change and that exploring for and producing more fossil fuels is therefore morally wrong. They also say fossil fuel companies are risky investments as global action on emissions gets tougher.

Ellen Dorsey, at the philanthropic Wallace Global Fund, said the pressure to divest would continue. “Today, our movement pledges to increase divested global assets to $10tn by 2020.”

She said investing in clean energy was as important as pulling funds from polluting firms: “Investors should also commit at least 5% of their portfolio to climate solutions to help rapidly scale to 100% renewable energy and universal energy access.”

Pension schemes should be supported for moving people’s money out of fossil fuels and into renewables because the financial risks from the climate crisis are “too important to ignore”, a government minister will say on Monday.

The pensions minister, Guy Opperman, is due to tell a conference that pension and investment managers must “do the right thing” and take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously to help combat the climate emergency.

During the last few years a number of pension schemes have taken action to protect their members from the risks associated with climate change by reducing their exposure to companies with reserves of coal, oil and gas.